Practicalities

Grab Got Legal in Thailand and That Changed the Price of Everything

From 31 March 2026 every app driver needs a public licence, and from October the government starts grading the platforms. Here is what that means for the ride you are about to book.

Islands & Beaches

Phi Phi Is the Most Crowded Place in Thailand and It Is Still Worth Going

The beach from the film is closed to swimmers for four months a year and capped to a few hundred people when it is open. Here is how the place actually works now.

Money & Costs

Silk Is the One Thai Thing You Should Buy and Almost Nobody Does

Thailand is one of the few countries on earth where the silk is genuinely handmade and genuinely worth buying, and the tourist price for it is about four times what it costs.

Islands & Beaches

The East Coast Has a Moon Rabbit and Almost No Tourists

Past the industrial port on the way to the islands there is a riverside town with a French cathedral, a moon-shaped hill and a produce market that starts at five in the morning.

Practicalities

Most Travel Insurance for Thailand Is Useless for Thailand

The policy you buy for a holiday is built for a different holiday. Scooters, diving, motorcycles and hospitals that demand cash are where it falls apart, every time.

Temples & Culture

Most Hill Tribe Tours Make You Part of the Problem

The Karen, Hmong, Akha and Lahu villages in the north were resettled, relocated and turned into tourism over about thirty years. Knowing that changes which tour you book.

Practicalities

Nobody Tells You That the Loudest Bar in Thailand Is Also the Safest

There are three scenes in Thailand and they are nothing like each other. One of them is loud, chaotic, and staffed entirely by women who will stop you making a mistake.

Slow Travel

Bangkok Has Free Things That Are Better Than the Paid Ones

The best park in the city is free, the best view of the skyline is free, and the best food in the country costs less than the entry fee to the palace you queue for.

Islands & Beaches

The Cliffs Above Phang Nga Are the Best Boating in Thailand

Hong Island, James Bond Island, sea caves you can kayak into, and a bay full of karst pillars that has been in every film ever made and is still astonishing.

Slow Travel

Emerald Pool Is the Best Thing in Southern Thailand and Getting There Is the Problem

A limestone lake the colour of a swimming pool, a fully river-fed one, in a national park that closes parts of itself for most of the year. Here is how to actually get there.

Practicalities

The Dentist in Thailand Is the Best Part of the Trip You Did Not Plan

Thailand does more cosmetic dental work than almost anywhere and a lot of it is excellent. The rest of it is a market, and a market needs rules.

Slow Travel

Thonburi Is the Half of Bangkok That Has Not Been Sold Yet

The west bank of the river is older, weirder, cheaper and better than the side everyone photographs, and it is fifteen minutes on a boat from the Grand Palace.